Smart Touch Radiofrequency Catheter Ablation versus Cryoballoon Ablation of Pulmonary Veins in Patients with Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation

AIM: Evaluation of the safety and efficacy of pulmonary veins isolation in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) using two new different technologies, cryoballoon (CB) ablation and radiofrequency ablation with contact force (CF)-sensing catheters. METHODS: Prospective single-center evaluation, carried out from January 2016 to June 2018 in Critical Care Medicine Department – Cairo University, comparing CF radiofrequency (Thermocool® SmartTouch, Biosense Webster, Inc.) (CF group) with CB ablation (Arctic Front Advance 28 mm CB, Medtronic, Inc.) (CB group), in regards to procedural safety and efficacy, as well as recurrence at 12 months. Overall, 50 consecutive patients were enrolled (25 in each group). RESULTS: The characteristics of patients of both the groups were similar (46.9 ± 11.2 years, the proportion of women 36%, mean documented AF duration 3 ± 2.3 years, mean CHA2DS2-VASc score 1.4 ± 1.3, and mean HAS-BLED 1.4 ± 0.6). Duration of the procedure was significantly lower in the CB group (171.7 ± 15.24 vs. 199.3 ± 18.94 min, p = 0.002), with a longer duration of fluoroscopy and X-ray exposure in the CB group than the CF group but statistically non-significant difference (58.60 ± 11.57 vs. 48.7 ± 13.86 min and 6273 ± 4934 cGy cm² vs. 6853 ± 5069 cGy cm², p = 0.1 and p = 0.2, respectively). Overall complication rate was similar in both groups: 2 (8%) in each group. At 12 months, AF recurrence occurred in 7 patients (28%) in the CF group and in 9 patients (36%) in the CB group (log rank p = 0.682). CONCLUSION: Pulmonary vein isolation using CF-guided RF and second-generation CB leads to comparable single-procedure arrhythmia-free survival at up to 12 months with similar overall complication rate.

Micellar high performance liquid chromatographic method for separation and validation of two anti-hepatitis C- virus drugs in pure form, human plasma and human urine

OBJECTIVES

In the present study, an eco- friendly micellar liquid chromatographic technique was validated for separation and quantification of two drugs; namely ribavirin (RIV), and sofosbuvir (SBV) in pure form, pharmaceuticals containing them, human plasma and human urine. These drugs are administered co-administered for treatment of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) that causes hepatitis C in humans.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

These drugs were separated using Nucleosil 100-5 phenyl column. Sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) solution (0.05M, pH 7.0) containing triethylamine (0.3%) and n-butanol (10%) was used as a mobile phase with 1.2 mLmin^-1 flow rate and 215nm detection wavelength. Nine minutes were required for resolving the two drugs from the matrix.

RESULTS

The method showed good linearity for RIV and SBV with correlation coefficients (r²) more than 0.9996 within the concentration ranges of (20-400) and (40-400) ngmL^-1 in pure form, (30-300) and (50-300) ngmL^-1 in human plasma and (20-400) and (40-400) ngmL^-1 in human urine, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The recommended method was applied for examination of RIV and SBV in pure and pharmaceuticals. The obtained results were statistically matched with reported methods with no significant differences. Also, the recommended method was effectively applied for estimation of both drugs in spiked human urine and plasma without purification or extraction steps and real samples of plasma and urine of humans having therapy of RIV and SBV, as well as, performing tablets dissolution-rate tests with satisfactory results.